Old Test vs New Testament

The Bible is split up into two main parts: The Old Testament, which has 39 books and The New Testament, which has 27 books.

The Old Testament starts with how God created everything, then tells the story of how people disobeyed God and brought sin into the world. It has God’s laws, history, poems, wisdom for His people to follow, and songs. It also has the prophets, which were people who heard from God and shared it with His people. The Old Testament was written before Jesus was born, but everything in it points to Him.

The New Testament was written after Jesus was born. It starts out with 4 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), which are all about Jesus. It also has the history of how His church began and spread, and lots of letters from Jesus’ followers to churches telling them how they should live. The last book of the Bible is about when Jesus will come back and set up His kingdom on earth.

To earn a pompom today, look at the first three scripture references in the Bible Buddies reading plan, then go to the table of contents in your Bible to find out if they are in the Old Testament or the New Testament. When you start the reading plan next week will you be reading about the time before Jesus was born or after?

*Parents of young kids that can’t read yet - Look at just the first verse in the reading plan. This is the same book they looked for yesterday. Point out the shape of the letter ‘J’ and have them look for a book that starts with that shape in the table of contents. Again, start in the New Testament so they don’t get frustrated weeding through multiple books that start with ‘J’. Once they’ve found the book, point out the Old Testament and the New Testament, then point to the book they found and ask them whether it’s in the Old or New Testament.